Coordination-tuned Ru single-atom catalyst for efficient catalysis of CO2 to CH4 on RuBxN4-x@TiN (x=0–4)

Creating useful chemicals or fuels from CO₂ is one of the most promising ways to reach carbon neutral. In this work, through the formation of Lewis acid sites, a string of boron-atom-coordinated Ru single-atom catalysts (SACs), namely RuB_xN_4-x@TiN (x=0–4), were constructed, and their CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR) was systematically studied. The results show that o-RuB₂N₂@TiN, p-RuB₂N₂@TiN, and RuB₃N₁@TiN are able to efficiently inhibit the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and activate CO₂, with a potential-determining step lower than 0.7 eV and high selectivity for CH₄ generation. This work shows that the synergistic effect of B and Ru atoms are able to effectively improve the catalytic activity, which is expected to offer a possible tactic for the sensible creation of effective CO₂RR catalysts.